Encyclopedia of Espionage, Intelligence, and Security

Kenya, Bombing of United States Embassy

Rescue workers pull an injured man from the ruins of a neighboring
building after a powerful blast detonated next to the U.S. Embassy in
Nairobi, Kenya, in 1998. Islamist al-Qaeda members were blamed for the
explosion, which killed over 200 people and injured over 1,600.

AP/WIDE WORLD PHOTOS

.

█ MICHAEL VAN DYKE

At approximately 10:30 on the morning of August 7, 1998, a yellow van
approached the United States Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya. When the vehicle
stopped, one of the passengers exited and threw a grenade-like device at
the gate-guard. The guard fled while the van went through the gate and
proceeded to the underground parking garage. Moments later, an explosion
ripped through the embassy, also demolishing the nearby Ufundi Coop House
and the 17-story Cooperative Bank. A secretarial college was also severely
damaged. Two hundred and fourteen persons were killed in the bombing,
including twelve American citizens, and more than four thousand were
injured. A near-simultaneous bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam,
Tanzania, killed eleven more people.

Within days, the man who had thrown the grenade-like device was captured
and identified as Mohamed Rashed Daoud al-Owhali. Al-Owhali had been
injured in the grenade explosion and had gone to a local hospital for
treatment. Under questioning, al-Owhali revealed that the operation was
linked to the Arab-Afghan al-Qaeda organization run by Saudi financier
Osama bin Laden. Al-Owhali claimed to have been trained in several
al-Qaeda terrorist camps in Afghanistan, where he had received instruction
in explosives, highjacking, and kidnapping. He had also attended
conferences where Bin Laden was present, and was aware of a 1996 fatwa
(religious ruling), signed by Bin Laden, that urged the killing of
Americans worldwide. Al-Owhali also stated that the bombing was supposed
to have been a "martyrdom operation," and that he
hadn't expected to survive it. Soon thereafter, a second suspect
was captured and identified as Mohamed Saddiq Odeh. Odeh, a 34-year-old
Palestinian engineer, admitted that he had provided technical and
logistical support to the bombers. Further investigation showed that Odeh
had been a member of al-Qaeda since 1992, and had lived in Kenya since
1996, where he had been in frequent communication with top al-Qaeda
commanders. He also was aware of Bin Laden's 1996 fatwa. Al-Owhali,
the first suspect, was a Yemeni national who agreed to speak to
authorities if he was guaranteed trial in the United States
("because America is my enemy and Kenya is not"). In his
testimony, al-Owhali claimed that the Nairobi embassy had been targeted
because it was a lightly guarded, "easy target." In regard
to the timing of the bombing, al-Owhali testified that it had been planned
for late Friday morning because observant Muslims would be going to
mosques for prayer services at that time.

Within weeks of the bombing, the United States responded with SCUD missile
attacks on likely Bin Laden base camps in Afghanistan. Satellites had
observed the dispersion of people away from these camps in the days
immediately following the August 7 embassy bombings. Combined with the
testimony of al-Ohwali and Odeh, these observed movements gave the United
States evidence to consider al-Qaeda and Osama bin Laden fully responsible
for the deadly attacks. By the fourth anniversary of the bombing, the
United States had given $42 million in assistance to Kenya and four of the
perpetrators had been convicted and sentenced to life in prison.

█ FURTHER READING:

BOOKS:

Benjamin, Daniel, and Steven Simon.
The Age of Sacred Terror.
New York: Random House, 2002.